MissElaineous

Jane Austen Country: A quote around every corner

Jane Austen Country: A quote around every corner
It is a truth universally acknowledged that any writing about Jane Austen must begin with “It is a truth universally acknowledged …”. The opening line to Austen’s Pride and Prejudice has been repeated and parodied so many times it borders on cliché … although the original author was anything but. Jane Austen herself was an original, but not necessarily a… View Post

The Art of Reinvention: Weston-super-Mare

The Art of Reinvention: Weston-super-Mare
MrElaineous and I have taken to playing what I suspect is a very common middle-aged game: when did we last visit such-and-such location? Of course, some of our confusion stems from the pandemic. Two years were excised from our mental timeline, making precise estimates even trickier. The seaside town of Weston-super-Mare is the latest place to enter the guessing cycle.… View Post

Cotswold Bound: Bourton and Bibury

Cotswold Bound: Bourton and Bibury
One of the best things about living in Chippenham is how easy it is to get out of it. It’s a joke I’ve made before and will likely make again because it’s one that has a kernel of truth at its heart.  The mainline train station can quickly deliver you to Bristol, Bath, and London (or Swindon or Reading if… View Post

Globe-trotting across London

Globe-trotting across London
Interregnum. It’s a Latin word that originally signified the time between the reigns of monarchs. Over the centuries, it has also grown to encompass an interval or a pause between two things. And this post is a brief interregnum between the first and second half of my visit to the Netherlands. It’s a look at how it’s possible to travel… View Post

Out of Practice: The Netherlands (Day 3)

Out of Practice: The Netherlands (Day 3)
I found myself completely out of practice when it came to my family’s recent trip to the Netherlands, booking things relatively last minute and researching activities on the fly. However, one tidbit I picked up was that the Bloemencorso Bollenstreek—the annual flower parade—would finish in the town of Haarlem. This was only a 20-minute train ride from Amsterdam, and it… View Post

Out of Practice: The Netherlands (Day 2, Part 2) 

Out of Practice: The Netherlands (Day 2, Part 2) 
Our first full day in the Netherlands turned into a day of two halves. The first half was a visit to the spectacular spring garden at Keukenhof. During the second, we took advantage of our iAmsterdam City Card to visit the flight experience at This is Holland. It’s sort of hard to describe because it comes across as quite dull… View Post

Out of Practice: The Netherlands (Day 2, Part 1)

Out of Practice: The Netherlands (Day 2, Part 1)
Our first full day in Amsterdam technically started earlier in the week. Business busy-ness and being completely out of practice when it came to travelling meant that holiday planning took a backseat, and I didn’t get around to checking what was available until Monday (we travelled on Friday). The weather on Saturday looked perfect: an ideal day for visiting the… View Post

Out of Practice: The Netherlands (Day 1)

Out of Practice: The Netherlands (Day 1)
Out of practice. This phrase describes how I feel both with regards to writing a blog post and travelling in general. My business of Academic Smartcuts is fully booked, and co-trainer Dan Allwood and I have been focusing on developing new training programmes and refining old ones. This has left very little time and the headspace necessary to write. Meanwhile,… View Post

New Year, Re-Discovered You?

New Year, Re-Discovered You?
I learned to read in kindergarten. As soon as I could see how letters formed words and words formed sentences, I was off. I was that child who had her nose stuck in a book at recess rather than play. My parents were concerned that I would get lost because I always read in the car and, no, I couldn’t… View Post

The ABCs of Planning

The ABCs of Planning
Believe it or not, teaching academics how to plan their work is a big part of the training programmes I’ve been running over the past several months. There’s the importance of breaking a big project like writing a grant proposal into smaller steps and then using backwards planning to assign deadlines to each small task so that everything gets done… View Post

Shades of Autumn

Shades of Autumn
I sometimes feel like spring gets all of the attention. Wordsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” puts the spotlight firmly on daffodils, those harbingers of better weather and brighter days. Spring Break shenanigans are practically a rite of passage in the US; who talks about going on Autumn Break? It can feel like lions and lambs, Easter holidays, and… View Post

My Year of Buying a Car: An Update

My Year of Buying a Car: An Update
Last year I wrote approximately 5000 words to describe the quest MrElaineous and I went on in our search for a new used car. I hope readers found it informing and entertaining; I certainly found the experience helpful as a form of therapy. Yesterday MrElaineous took CUU for its first service here in Chippenham, and I thought it might be… View Post

Sew What? Adventures in Research

Sew What? Adventures in Research
Every so often, MrElaineous and I decide to declutter. We get rid of DVDs that won’t be re-watched and books that won’t be re-read, sort through clothing that has seen better days, and downsize the number of knickknacks and dust-catchers scattered around the house. In general, we try to streamline our belongings to those that spark Kondian joy or which… View Post

Becoming Part of the Historic Record: Bristol City Centre

Becoming Part of the Historic Record: Bristol City Centre
This month marks twenty years since I arrived in the UK to study for a Masters degree in Archaeology for Screen Media at the University of Bristol. Running my business has kept me on my toes, so I hadn’t thought much about this anniversary until a headline on the BBC website stopped me in my tracks. “City Centre fountains to… View Post

Pootling around Paddington and Piccadilly

Pootling around Paddington and Piccadilly
Pootle. It’s a British word that should not be confused with a French canine, and it is a term I was introduced to via a German friend who picked it up during her decades of living in the UK. The definition is similar to the construction of the sentence above. It means to travel without any particular aim or hurry.… View Post

Every Business Has A Story

Every Business Has A Story
Over the past two years, my primary business of Academic Smartcuts has grown to the point where it now takes up the majority of my time. This is good news when you’re self-employed!  Although this means fewer MissElaineous blog posts, I am still writing A LOT. You can take a peek at what I get up to over on LinkedIn,… View Post

Going from A to D(urham)

Going from A to D(urham)
I’ve always found the term “travelling for work” to be a bit of an oxymoron, or at least a contradiction of sorts. Although there is literal travel involved, in regards to moving from one place to another, it’s not exactly the type of thing that one thinks about when saying “I love to travel!” After all, many people don’t love… View Post

My Year of Buying a Car

My Year of Buying a Car
[ This is not a standard blog post in that there is no travel, nature, history, or tea, unless you drink the latter while reading it (or count the cups I consumed while writing it). It was written partially as therapy to decompress after the experience and partially to inform. It is also long, so please buckle up and enjoy… View Post

Crocodiles in the Cotwolds

Crocodiles in the Cotwolds
If I asked someone to describe the Cotswolds, they might talk about thatched cottages and buildings constructed from the eponymous honey-coloured stone. Adjectives like “charming” and “quaint” would likely be used to refer to the villages and hamlets that dot the region, which is itself an official Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. They would perhaps mention that the Cotswolds has… View Post
MissElaineous Travel Blog: Escape, Explore, Discover, Enjoy